Imagine that the President of the United States is sending personal representatives to the homes of private citizens and asking them to sign a “pledge of support” for his Administration’s policies. Imagine that those representatives are asking citizens for their names and e-mail addresses so that the “post-election” organization set up by the president can follow up with them; perhaps taking the addresses of those who refuse to sign. Imagine what the reaction of the online left would be to such activity. Cries of “Fascism!” “Police state!” and “Voter intimidation!” would ring out from the online left in opposition to the Republican Administration’s tactic.
Now imagine that the president doing this is not a Republican, but is President Barack Obama.
President Obama’s appearance on “The Tonight Show”…was only a small part of the president’s so-called permanent campaign. A bigger move comes Saturday, when Obama will ask 13 million people on his campaign e-mail list to go door-to-door to raise support for his agenda.
The Pledge Project Canvass is an unprecedented effort by a president to reach beyond Congress and tap grassroots supporters for help. Volunteers recruited online by Obama’s Organizing for America, a post-election group, will ask citizens to sign a pledge in support of the president’s policies on energy, health care and education.
Those who pledge will be asked for their e-mail addresses so the Obama-ites can keep in touch.
“This is just the beginning for us,” said Jeremy Bird, deputy national director of Organizing for America, in an online video to Obama supporters this week.
